The Technicolors - Concert Review

Last Monday (6/24/2019) I did a road trip with my (19 y/o) son and one of his friends.  We headed north to Chicago, to see one of my son'r favorite bands, The Technicolors.  I got invited since it seems 19 year olds can't check into hotel rooms in the Chicago area (at least ay IHG properties).  All good, I like music, and there will be increasingly fewer times to spend time with the boy.

The venue was The Beat Kitchen.  I wasn't at all familiar with it, as I only know one otehr venue in Chicago: Metro.  Anyway, we headed north from STL area a bit after 0 am, checked into our hotel (in Bolingbrook) around 3.  (I decided to stay outside of town to save a few bucks and avoid Chicago traffic the next morning - GREAT decision, btw).  The traffic from Bolingbrook into town was...  ... well, Chicago.  But we got to the venue with plenty of time to find parking (on-street - easy-peasy!), and grab dinner at the bar (quite good!).

So, Beat Kitchen is a corner bar in a pretty nice section of town, seems to be pretty "gentrified".  I guess the area is Roscoe Village... You enter through the bar, where there's a few tables and food.  Then the concert space is in the back.  It looks lomething like this:

IJust a big open space, rectangular....  Just off camera to the left is the sound booth, and behind that a small bar space.  Directly behind me were a couple tables set up for band merchandise, and the door to the bar.  I very cozy place, I found someplace on line that said capacity is 275, which seems about right.  Above is shortly after the doors to the back opened, not exactly a rush.

There were 3 bands on the schedule:  Local group Ivy Dye, then Deal Casino, and finally The Technicolors.  

I though Ivy Dye was ok, in the context of being a local band and 3rd billing.  Nobody I'd make a 500 mile round trip to see, but OK.  A little bit of "wall-of-sound" and a little bit of "all sounds the same", but we're talking a 30 minute set from a not-widely known band.  Bit of a challenge to get on, make a splash and get off.  I counted 28 people in the venue when they started, that had to be a bit disappointing.

Deal Casino was a step up, presumably a bit more experienced.  I hadn't heard of them before, don't remember specific songs, but they were good enough.  They're on Spotify, I'll listen to them a bit more for sure.

The Technicolors came on a little after 9:30, and were pretty outstanding.  I was only somewhat familiar with them from when my son takes over the music, but I quite enjoyed the show.  I made a Spotify playlist based on a recent setlist and have been checking out Youtubes.  

The crowd was pretty sparse, I'd guess no more than 100 .  I don't know if that's good for a Monday night in Chicago, but seemed pretty light for a national act.  But, the old man in me liked the not-crowded bit.  I don't usually take photos during shows, but grabbed a few iPhone shots since I wasn't really interfering with others...

One especially good thing about the small crowd in the show was the small crowd at the mech tables, and the opportunity to chat briefly with a couple of the band members.

We were out of the club by around 11:15, and the drive back to Bolingbrook only took 40-45 minutes (less than 1/2 the drive in, but that's Chicago).  So we were in the hotel room just after midnight.  And an easy drive home Tuesday morning.

Fun excursion!

Telephone

Seen at a rest stop along Interstate I-55, near Springfield, IL. This sign was above a door, I'm guessing it was a phone booth once upon a time. Although I'd've expected a glass door, this was was just solid and the same grey as above.

How about some phone related songs??

• Telephone Line - Electric Light Orchestra
• Telephone Girl - Eddie And The Hot Rods
• Hanging On The Telephone - Blondie
• The Phone Call - The Pretenders
• Girl On The Phone - The Jam
• Next Phone Call - Rossington Collins Band
• Operator - Jim Croce
• Call Me - Blondie
• Don't Call Us, We'll Call You - Sugarloaf
• I Just Called To Say I Love You - Stevie Wonder
• Long Distance Call - Muddy Waters
• Please Call Home - Gregg Allaman
• She May Call You Up Tonight - Left Banke
• Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High - Arctic Monkeys
• Crows On A Phone Line - Let's Active
• Call Me, Tell Me - Pure Prairie League
• Call The Doctor - JJ Cale
• Call The Uh-Oh Squad - Robert Ellis Orrall
• Callin' Baton Rouge - New Grass Revival (and Garth Brooks)
• Calling America - Electric Light Orchestra
• Calling Dr. Love - Kiss

Neon Roses

"Neon roses after midnight
Starlet poses after your lie
So lay your head right next to my mind
Dream me in and out of your crimes
Tonight
Cause we'll never see this place again"
- The Technicolors

So... I took my 19 year old son and one of his friends to Chicago to see The Technicolors at a small venue (Beat Kitchen)... That's the two of them watching the show. Not sure what song this was during, but they played "Neon Roses" early in the set, and the reflected lights sort of reminded me of it.

I really ought to write a review of the show...

Happy Birthday - Paul Goddard!

Today is (or would be) the birthday for Paul Goddard, bass player for The Atlanta Rhythm Section.  A founding member of the band, Goddard played on everything from their first album  (1972), through 1981, Goddard played bass on 11 studio albums and the Live "Are You Ready?".   This includes their heyday, with 7 Top Forty hits, 2 Gold albums and one Platinum record. Probably best known for Top 10 hits So Into You and Imaginary Lover, but my favorite album of theirs is 1975's Dog Days.

Paul Goddard is one of my favorite bass players, one of the first bass players that really caught my ear back in the late 70's when I was trying to teach myself the instrument.  I saw ARS a few times back in the day, but always as a support act.  They were almost always quite good (there was one time where the singer had an issue, but that story is for another time).  Goddard's solo on the live version of "Another Man's Woman" was once voted one of the 5 best bass solos in rock, and is worth a listen..

Born June 23, 1945, Goddard would have been 74, except he died in 2014.  Think I'll listen to some ARS today to celebrate Paul Goddard's playing!

ACC105 (2nd entry) - Camellia Lutchuensis - All of the answers...

Time for my latest entry to the Album Cover Challenge over at 365project.  This is one of my favorite challenges over there, as it combines two of my passions:  Photography and music.  Yee-Haw!  Details on the challenge here.

Anyway, my randomly generated band name was "Camellia Lutchuensis".
And my randomly generated album name was "All of the answers"

As with challenge #104, I decided to start with an old image.  Here's how it turned out:

(click for larger version)

I thought about a potential playlist inspired by this, but haven't done anything yet...



Here's the original image, I made a pretty aggressive crop:

Check out all of my album cover challenge entries here.

Even MORE Backyard Birding

Rainy, rainy day today, but I managed to catch this male Cardinal at the feeder:

I haven't seen a female, but I'm sure they're around....

You are not in control of your environment, only your tools

As I mentioned Monday, last weekend was Creve Coeur Camera's Photopalooza event, and I attended a couple of presentations.

Anyway, during a session on Landscape Photography, the instructor (Shiv Verma) made the comment:   You are not in control of your environment, only your tools

Fortunately, it was echoed on one of his slides, so I was able to take a photo and remember it.

I thought it was pretty insightful, and applicable far beyond photography.  Now, I don't see this as a justification to go gear-crazy, and I do think that Ansel Adams could take a Polaroid photo that would blow away anything I could do with the best equipment on the planet. (and he did).  The point (as I see it) is that you control what you can, and accept what you can't.  You can't take sweeping landscapes on ugly days.  But you can take good photographs.

From Feb, 2018...

You Lookin' at Me?

So....  perceptive readers may have noticed a recent spate of bird photos from me recently.  Like here, here, here here, here.....  Blame it on my semi-new 55-200mm lens (delivered 4/5/2019).

I'm rather pleased with this lens.  Quite pleased even.

I'm not great at bird identification, but I'm guessing this is a female American Goldfinch.

The title is, of course, a reference to the movie "Taxi Driver".  Which I've never seen, btw.

Happy Birthday, Paul McCartney!

Paul McCartney is 77 years old today!

Just in case you've been living on Venus or Mars, and don't know who Paul McCartney is: 

Paul McCartney was a founding member of, and bass player for a 1960's band from England known as The Beatles.  They were pretty big, like the biggest band ever.  Just about every significant rock star of the late 60's through the early 80's cites the Beatles as the reason they got into music.  They have 11 albums on the Rolling Stone list of 500 Greatest Albums,everthing except "Yellow Submarine".  And 23 songs on Rolling Stone's list of Top 500 songs of all time, close to double the next artist.  After the Beatles broke up, McCartney started a solo career, and formed a quite successful band called Wings.  Over the next few decades he's been quite active, with his most recent release just last September.  I'm not even going to try and count how many albums he's released over 55 years or so.

As bass player, McCartney was (is) one of the defining forces.  Just check out any of the "isolated bass" videos on youTube.

Still touring, McCartney played last Friday in Arlington, TX, and will play next Saturday in San Diego.  Looks like he's taking a few day's off for his birthday!

Happy Birthday, Sir Paul!

Golden Moment

A little bit before sunset...

Intentionally underexposed to bring out the details in the clouds.

I was at a photography event last weekend, and attended a session on Landscape Photography.  While the session was really good overall, the instructor stated that a photographer should NEVER shoot towards (or away from) the sun.  Always a a significant angle (preferably looking east or west) to bring out the texture of the land).  And that Sunsets should be studiously avoided.

On that point, I humbly disagree.

Now, maybe the image above isn't really a "landscape".  But it is a sunset.  And although it is aimed at the sun, I feel like there's a good bit of depth here, and texture.  Oh well, he's the professional, and his work is certainly better than mine (sincerely, no sarcasm intended).  However, I'll continue to shoot what I like, how I like.  And this photo pleases me.  I do hope some of y'all out there don't hate the results.

High Water on the Mississippi river

Driving across the Chain Of Rocks Bridge yesterday, the Mississippi River was as high as I remember seeing it.  I presume it was higher during the flood of '93, but I don't remember.  (I know it was higher in Alton, don't know about this spot).  Anyway, headed into Missouri, I noticed just how high the river was on the water inlet towers. 

 Sadly, there really isn't a way to get near enough to take a decent photo at the moment.  So, for the drive home I preset my camera, and on the eastbound crossing snapped 5-6 photos out of the car window.  No look, no zoom, just hoped to get lucky.  All the same:  don't try this yourselves kids!

- - - -

They're not good photos, hardly even snapshots.  But they do give an idea just how high the river is.

By comparison, here's some previous photos of these structures:


April 2003, from the Old Chain Of Rocks Bridge

September 2018, from the Old Chain Of Rocks Bridge:

Stats and Other Pointlessness...

So...  Blogger has a Stats function.  Which allows me to track page views and traffic sources and such stuff.  Perhaps meaningful if I were a business.  Or perhaps if I had any meaningful traffic here.

Since neither is true, so it is pretty useless.

SO....

What's my most popular post of all time?

Blue Meanies, from May 11, 2011.  What is kind of funny is that the post it was inspired by my discovering the Stats function.  It notes that my most popular post at that time (May 2011) was titled Sky of blue and sea of green In our yellow submarine from 9/5/2010.  That post is still my #2 all time.  Combine those two posts and, they account for 1.7% of my total page views over the past... well however long it is (this blog has been around since September 2004, but I don't think the stats go back that far.  The page view graphs don't even go as far back as either of these two "Top" posts).

Clearly, I need to do more Beatles related posts.  Or keep re-posting this image:

- - - - -

Meanwhile, Looking at the past month (and past week), my most popular post is Vacation, from all the way back to August 1, 2007.  Quite simply, That Don't Make No Sense.  A twelve year old post about vacationing in Aurora, Kentucky (no Beatles connection there!).  A 12 year old post where all the photos have been deleted (back when I used AOL for my image hosting!)...

What can it all mean?  Probably nothing.  But it keeps me interested.

Color or B&W??

Refelctions of the Old Courthouse building in downtown S. Louis.  I took this with color in mind, and was happy with the way it turned out in color.

But then I decided to do a B&W version.  I really like both, probably equally.  But the overall feel is certainly different.

So, which do you prefer?  Color?  B&W?  Love / Hate both equally?
Let me know in comments.

ACC105 - Goat Catfish - When You're Through Changing, You're Through

Time for my latest entry to the Album Cover Challenge over at 365project.  This is one of my favorite challenges over there, as it combines two of my passions:  Photography and music.  Yee-Haw!  Details on the challenge here.

Anyway, my randomly generated band name was "Goat Catfish".
And my randomly generated album name was "words in the English language"

As with challenge #104, I decided to start with an old image.  Here's how it turned out:

(click for larger version)

Following my recent trend, I'm creating a Spotify playlist inspired by this, I'll update this post with a link when it is done.


Check out all of my album cover challenge entries here.

I'd buy a raccoon but John already has one...

Person:  I wish I had a glass Of water.

Other Person:  Why?  You thirsty?

Person:  No, I want to see if my neck leaks!


(from the Monkees' song "Gonna Buy Me A Dog")

Wide Open Spaces

Taken with my iPhone, while my wife was driving on I-24.  Not too far from Newstead, Kentucky.

More Birds, Backyard and Beyond

Still digging my Fujinon 55-200mm zoom lens, seems to call me to taking bird pictures!  

Pretty sure this is a Carolina Wren, perhaps the same one I posted 5/28.  I'm thinking this is a juvenile, based on the small wings you can see below:

 It had just spent some time fluffing the feathers on its chest, then stretched its wings.  Rather short!

- - - - -

I beleive this is a female Red-Winged Blackbird, based on suggestions from Facebook, and subsequent internet digging.  This one's not in the backyard, but is at Watershed Nature Center.

I especially like this photo, She seems almost regal, and struck a nice pose.

R.I.P. Dr. John

You've probably heard by now, but American musician Dr. John, died last Thursday, June 6, 2019.

Dr. John (real name Mac Rebennack) was a 6 time Grammy winner and 2011 inductee to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. One of the great piano players in rock and roll...

I believe I first heard Dr. John with the single Right Place, Wrong Time, which peak at #9 a week or so after my 13th birthday.  And I'm pretty sure I remember when Such A Night was out, which just missed the Top 40 a few months later.  I certainly remember his performance in The Band's Last Waltz.  So, for a long time, a musician I knew of, and respected.  But I didn't actually own any Dr. John music until 1989's In A Sentimental Mood, featuring a fun duet of Makin' Whoopie with Rickie Lee Jones, which got a lot of airplay on MTV (back when they played music videos!).

When the 2 CD anthology Mos Scocious came out in 1993, I snapped it up, and savored the experience.  Over time, I picked up Television (on cassette!) and Duke Elegant...

Overall a really broad range of music, but most of it with a great funkyness and groove.

I highly recommend Mos Scocious, it's on Spotify.